3-D Floor Graphics

If images like these can't get your product to stand out, I can't imagine anything will!




Below is a link to Justin Beever's other artwork. In case my daughter is reading this, It's Beever, not Beieber!

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

Though these images are all the origional art, this can be reproduced and run as a campaign.

iPad Competition / Samsung's Galaxy

Soon I'll start writing about how to actually use the printed word in cross-media marketing applications.

I just stumbled across the below story. The iPad has been such a hit, that it will be interesting to watch other competitors enter the field. Samsung's Galaxy Tab runs on Google software, has two cameras- one for pictures and one for web-conferencing. Combined with larger and expandable memory, it seems to be a formidable competitor:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/204779/samsung_galaxy_tab_vs_the_ipad_compare_for_yourself.html

A Crash Course in DRM / Digital Rights Management

My last post touched on electronic books, and got me thinking about document protection. This post is meant to tell what can be done to protect files in digital formats.



When dealing with paper books, the #1 concern is that someone will buy the book, cut off the spine, scan the pages and post to the internet or resell. The great thing is that this is an incredibly rare situation. In fact, in my 15 years in this industry I do not personally know of this happening to anyone.

With an electronic file, or e-book, there are a multitude of concerns. For some reason, it seems a lesser transgression to copy electronic documents than paper documents. What does this mean? It means that you need to consider how you protect your electronic documents. Making PDFs of your book and selling them as downloads on your website is not enough. There are consumers who will take that PDF and e-mail it to others they know, or even post the link somewhere that it can be accessed by anyone. It is for this reason that you must consider Digital Rights Management (DRM) for your electronic files.

DRM allows for various levels of protection. You can restrict: altering the document, e-mailing the document to another person, the computer that the file can be read on, printing, and copying + pasting. This can be applied within PDF files, as well as within e-books.

You can also deter the above by watermarking the document when purchased. Software can be used to embed the purchaser's name, e-mail, membership number, or even computer IP address. With this written in the margin of the document the threat of embarrassment or lawsuit is significant enough to prevent unwanted dissemination.

If you need to get more technical than this please feel free to contact me. I have some very economical sources for e-book conversion, and some powerful tools for DRM.

Its your content, and that is what makes you unique. Make sure to protect it.

ePublishing

In the olden days, people would write, edit and layout text for the sole end purpose of outputting a hadcopy printed piece.












Today, a book is not even a book. A book is "content", and content may be published:


in e-mail
displayed on a web site
As a PDF
on an eReader
on a Smartphone
In a Searchable Database - build a book / custom publishing fits here
Or even a printed book!


If you have any intention of using your "content" in more than one display method, this should be evaluated AT THE VERY BEGINNING. By using Markup Languages your content can be composed once and directed to Multiple View Methods; saving time, money and opening up new options. You can later apply Digital Rights management to hinder document theft. Think from the beginning how your content may be used, and consider applying Markup Language as the layout process to make your future much easier.

Green Paper From Neenah + Free trip to Costa Rica!

To Promote their new ENVIRONMENT line of paper Neenah is running a contest. Go to:
www.neenahpaper.com/environmentcontest
to register to win a trip for two to Costa Rica. There are other prizes as well.

The ENVIRONMENT line looks very cool. The papers are 30-100% post consumer and made with 100% renewable energy. Whole Foods is highlighed in the campaign and promoting their commitment to using 100% recycled paper with a minimum of 30% post consumer. There are not a lot of these papers available. Thank you for a cool promotion Neenah!

Recordable Story Books

Imagine being a Grandparent to a child that lives far away, or a parent overseas. This is the market that Hallmark is pursuing for Grandparents Day 2010.

Grandparents day is on September 12th. As a customer of Hallmark, I received an e-mail with books in the heading. Knowing that Hallmark is an early adopter, I just checked it out, and it seems very cool.

In September there will be 12 total books available. There is a demo on the Hallmakr page. The user pages through the book, hits the record and stop buttons on each page, then when done hits the lock switch hidden beneath a screw in the battery comparment.

As the user turns the pages, the technology recognizes what page they are on and plays back the recording for that page.

This may not be a workable idea for your business, but it could be a great gift idea. Here's the link:

http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ArticleView?storeId=10001&CatIDsList=&bae=3&targetProductLine=&selectedCategory=&homeCategoryId=&campaign=T_E_M_090110_GC_VB_MainRecStory&catalogId=10051&siteID=&mailID=T_E_M_090110_GC_VB_MainRecStory&mc=&pageName=/HallmarkSite/GoldCrownStores/GCS_GIFTS_RECORDABLEBOOK&storeId=10001

Storefront Solutions / Web to Print

Most companies and associations are dealing with the challenges of:
1) How do I reduce costs?
2) How do I function with my already reduced staff?

These challenges combined with the others that have been around for a long time:
How do I control Branding across my organization?
How do I get Rogue spending under control?
Why are my storage costs so high?
How can we eliminate the cost of inventory obsolesence?

The reaction to these questions is usually AAAHH!!

The answer to these questions, may be a Storefront / Web to Print Solution. An on-line Storefront allows for templates of your images to be personalized, with both text and images, and ordered. Think of: Business Cards, Stationary for Regional offices, Event Brochure, Fundraising walks, Menus for Franchises, Signage...

Ordering steps are as simple as most internet transactions:

1) User logs into the site and chooses an item to create from an existing template
2) The template is personalized with text, or images
3) An on-line proof is generated and must be approved by the user
4) The order is submitted
5) The order goes to an approval agent, or approval agents within the organization. This makes sure that the new guy is not ordering a business card with the title, "Master of the Universe". It also make sure the site is being used properly, and eliminates rogue spending
6) Sometimes orders are instructed to queue up, this allows for printing efficiencies, and is very common for Business Cards. Other times, the order is urgent and printed and shipped within a 24 hour time period.

If you ever want to see an example of a working site, just shoot me an e-mail.
Jason

QR Codes - Tracking Response to Your Printed Piece

QR Codes, or Quick Response Codes, have been wildly popular in Japan. They are now common in Europe, and are starting to gain more popularity in the United States.

A QR Code is nothing more than a 2 Dimensional Bar code. These are used by downloading a software application to your Smart Camera phone, and then simply taking a picture of the code.

On the left is one that I made.

For Point of Purchase projects, Signs, Posters, landmarks on a tour, these can be great tools to expound on a printed piece. Ideas that quickly come to mind for me:
• Movie posters with links direct to the movie’s microsite
• Join a fan club with a direct link
• Directions to an event – just take a picture and it will give you all of the info in text on your phone

The most important that I see is making print come alive the way the internet does. If you are reading this blog, I can send you AGS here: http://www.ags.com. QR Codes allow me to do the same thing with print


This means that print becomes dynamic and interactive!
Now you can drive print to web for Donations, Registrations, and Purchases. This is huge!

Also, there are providers that allow you to TRACK WHO CLICKS on the QR Code. This allows you to track hits, just like an e-solution.

"Scan to Win Sweepstakes", "Scan to Subscribe", "Scan to Purchase", "Scan to Donate", "Scan to Register".

Its all possible now!

New "Green" Paper from Mohawk

Mohawk Fine Papers, (Cohoes, NY) announces the launch of Mohawk Loop: a comprehensive line of recycled and environmentally preferable papers. The papers are made with renewable energy and post-consumer fiber — including the largest selection of 100% postconsumer waste (pcw) options — without sacrificing quality, variety or performance. The line also includes the new coated Mohawk Silk with 50% pcw.

Mohawk Loop includes:
100% postconsumer waste (pcw), recycled papers.
A rich color palette with 35 shades ranging from bright white to rich black, with fibered shades and fashion colors.
Eight finishes, including a "silk coated" finish with 50% pcw, among the highest pcw content coated papers available.

Mohawk Loop is entirely FSC-certified, manufactured with Green-e certified windpower, and made carbon neutral. Green Seal certification is pending. Mohawk Loop papers are packaged in Mohawk's new environmentally responsible packaging materials.
For more information: http://www.mohawkpaper.com/getintheloop/index.php

Mailing Mistake with Wafer Seals

This beautiful 8 page + Cover mailer recently arrived in my mailbox (name covered up to protect the innocent). With 4 color process + aqueous coating + Spot UV + 2 pull out plastic coupons this is an expensive and high profile piece. Whoever designed and printed it did a fantastic job, the piece immediatly caught my eye and I wanted to open it.





BUT, before opening I noticed that there were 5 clear plastic wafer seals! These are indicated with the 5 pens. I knew that opening this piece would be no easy task. The clear plastic wafer seals used are stronger than paper and difficult to rip.



I found a razor blade to open up the lead edge, then to see how the piece would respond to the average user, I carefully pulled at the remaining wafer seals. The result, only one of the 4 remaining wafer seals yielded to pulling. The other 3 areas ripped the piece badly, and turned this previously beautiful mailer into a scrap heavily leaning toward being thrown in the garbage by my wife.



Its hard to imagine the average recipient searching for a razor blade to open a direct mail piece. That likely means most of these were damaged much worse by the end user, and a higher percentage of a piece that started off with everything right, ended up in the recycling bin.





The US Post Office made several changes to the type of closure that is needed on a Direct Mail piece. This does not mean that every piece needs to get mangled when opening. What could have been done differently?



First, only three wafer seals are needed for this piece with its current design: Two on top and one on the trailing edge. Someone screwed up on the mailing spec or assembly.



Second, plastic does not rip as easily as paper. Perforated wafer seals are no longer permittable. This means someone should have used transluscent - not clear, and designed around it from the beginning. Here's the Postal Guideline for this piece.



http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/201.htm#wp1084261



My advise is to partner with someone that knows mailing. Ask them some questions:


What are my mailing options for Postage?
Will this Postage Option arrive in time for the promotions?
How can I protect this from damage in the mail stream?
How many wafer seals do I need? What is their size and position?



Someone once said, "Begin with the End in Mind". This is the key to a successful piece.

Printing is Green

Interesting article that suggests printing is environmentally friendly:


"According to the co-founder of Greenpeace, Dr. Patrick Moore, choosing print on paper is helpful to the environment. "Forestry is the most sustainable of all the primary industries that provide us with energy and materials...To address climate change, we must use more wood, not less. Using wood sends signals to the marketplace to grow more trees."...

"Nearly 60% of all paper in the US is recycled, by comparison less than 20% of electronic devices are."

The article link is here:
Print Pays Back

Amazon, Apple, iPad, Kindle

Great article in the Washington Post on Amazon, ebooks, the iPad and the future of book writing as well as distribution:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020203910.html?referrer=emailarticle

HP T300 Digital Inkjet Web

Color Digital Web Printing is here! This new HP Ink jet Web Press is an impressive machine. I haven't promoted a piece of machinery in a very long time. Normal discussions revolve around how to use technology to increase responses in marketing campaigns. This new digital web press is a game changer!

The HP T300 is wide format Color high-quality digital: Fast - over a million 8 1/2 X 11 images in one day!

This allows for lower costs and shorter printing runs:
Greatly Reduce Warehousing Costs
Eliminate Obsolescence Costs
Speed time to market
Reduce Print Costs

Check this link out to see it in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nD1h60oQ04

Contact me if you want to price a book, or Variable Data Project on this Piece of equipment.

College Increases Applications by 30%

"Lifting a page from the marketing playbook of credit card companies". This is how one company describes their Variable Data Direct Mail Campaign designed to increase college applications.

Last year, over 100 colleges sent out Ready-to-Submit applications to prospective students. All of the student's information was filled out, and the application fee was waived. All the receiver had to do was sign their name, and mail it back to the school.

The result of these campaigns has been a significant spike in the number of applications. At the College of Saint Rose, in Albany, NY:

• Increase in Percentage of Men: from 28% to 35%
• Number of Enrolled Students from outside Albany area: from 53% to 63%
• Increase in Students who identify themselves as African American, Asian or Hispanic: from 7% to 18%
• Campaign Value: Priceless

See the full New York Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/education/26admit.html?pagewanted=1